The Tune of the Month for June is "Maggie Lauder." Consider it a tribute to all women pipers, especially the two I approached about making the selection this month but who didn't get the message, apparently. I hope this tune will inspire a few more pipers to participate. Here's a link to Chris Ormston's recording on soundcloud:http://soundcloud.com/chrisormston/maggie-lauderThere are lots of different settings to choose from, including several that go very well on the Border/Lowland/Northumbrian Half-long pipes.

"The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." - George W. Bush

Sorry no video, John, but synchronously, at yesterday's Tutors' Concert at the Coldstream Border Gaitherin I played Maggie Lauder on Border pipes in duet with Martin Marroni on flute. As friends of Rob The Ranter, the Border piper in Maggie Lauder's song, we were delighted to be playing his and her tune "upo' the Border" - you can't get closer to the Border than Coldstream.

I'm still working on knocking the tune into shape (and I think it's going to take me quite a bit more work). Just in case others weren't already aware of this article by Matt (as I wasn't), I found it very interesting http://lbps.net/lbps/repertoire/65-maggie-lauder.html.

I wrongly assumed that Cloughs would be more difficult, but I'm finding Reid's trickier, particularly that last strain, so I think John's being rather over optimistic if he thought this tune would encourage more to participate.It's a tough one to play! Maybe I'll try the version by Billy Pigg instead!!!

I didn't intend it to be so fast, but I found I was making fewer errors at this speed than I was playing it slower. I'm still trying to slow it down a bit and get it more accurate, but I found this the most difficult TOTM so far!